Tag: local product

TPS Paris is in Tokyo

It’s not too often it happens but my sister is visiting Tokyo this week. It means a lot of eating out and some cooking too, mainly Japanese for lunch and dinner. It also means a lot of going here and there. We spent the Saturday in the countryside, blessed with an amazing weather on Saturday morning that allowed us to go swimming in the ocean, just before the temperature dropped and felt like it’s winter. So to warm ourselves in the evening I first prepared a simple miso soup with tofu for me and clams for the others, seasoned with a bit of yuzu peels, some simply grilled bonito and a few nuka pickles.  

And while dinner is getting ready, what’s better than some little slices of lotus root slightly fried in a heated and greased pan? May be cucumbers and miso… well I’m just cooking all my favorite ingredients for her!!!

Fresh ginger!

It is now the season for fresh ginger. Fresh ginger looks very much like “old” ginger that is commonly found in supermarkets all over the world, but instead of a dry and thick skin and a very rooty aspect, fresh ginger has a whitish-pinkish color with a very thin skin and a much softer structure with much less fibers in it. It is quite juicy and slightly less spicy in taste. Ideal for any recipe involving ginger, perfect just sliced or grated for the juice. And since the weather is getting chillier these days a hot honey-ginger or ginger-tangerine drink is perfect!!!! 

Making these drinks is very easy, you need a piece of ginger, honey and/or 1 or 2 tangerines. Boil water, peel and cut the ginger in slices, squeeze the tangerines for juice. In a tea pot put the sliced ginger, the tangerine juice, 2 tsp of honey, add the water. Let infuse 5 to 10min depending on your taste and drink while hot! Perfect to prevent colds and season fatigue.

The simplest Japanese dinner!

Sometimes ingredients just come perfectly together at the farmers market and there is nothing else to do than prepare them in the simplest manner. The summer is soon to ginish but not quite yet and fresh little cucumbers are excellent, crispy, juicy and refreshing. The new rice has just been harvested in Isumi and perfectly cooked it’s crazily delicious, slightly softer and more white and transparent than normal rice. Myoga has started to grow here and there in the woods (our neighbor K. San went to pick some just in the hill back our house and you can find plenty at the farmers market) and the taste of fresh myoga just sliced in a simple miso soup is a little astringent. And to finish a piece of fresh wild snapper filet, simply grilled and topping the rice that goes perfectly with K. San’s fresh umeboshi. I’m starving writing this post and dying for an other meal like that!!!!

Corn soup

May be because I come from the south of France, a region where they don’t grow corn, I never been much use to fresh corn. Only when traveling to the US as a teenager did I discover whole corn grilled with butter and salt, and more recently in Japan corn soup. I must say that Japanese do really have something with corn soup. Something that at first kind of refrained me from trying: they sell corn soup or drink in can in self vending machines!!!! Yes, just like water, coke, tea and coffee… But sometimes in cafe and restaurants they serve some real soup and I actually really enjoy its sweetness. It is often added with cream or some bouillon to make it tastier and creamier.

The other day I bought some corns and decided to try to make some. I boiled the corns, then removed the hard parts and blended the soft ones. I added a bit of water until obtaining the consistency I was expecting because it was more of a purée but you can add milk, soy milk, cream… As you like.  And simply served with salt and pepper. It kept the granulous texture of the corn grains skin which I kind a like bit makes the soup rather rustic, so for a more elegant soup I recommend to filter it. Enjoy warm or cold!

Saturday energy lunch

We are back to our little weekend routine: going to the country, gardening, playing tennis, baking bread etc… Which means a lot of outdoor time and a lit of activity. Lunch always to be energetic and well balanced. Pasta, rice or cereals make a good base, and since we have local and fresh vegetables and meat or fish I also use many. Today I opted for grilled vegetables that can cook while outside gardening, together with Sicilian ring pasta and some dried tomatoes and thyme pork balls. The veggies are oven roasted in olive oil for 60min. The pork balls I made them with fresh pork meat, 2 dried tomatoes chopped and a tsp of dried thyme (if you have fresh one it’s even better). I them mix all together, made tiny one bite balls and cook them in a bit of olive oil.

Rehabilitation cooking

Since we came back from Canada I’ve this impression that I have forgotten how to cook and that I am in a transitional phase of rehabilitation. After such a long time not really cooking much and seeing so many ingredients that I can’t find easily in Japan and that gave me so msny ideas it’s tough for me. Though I’m very happy with the Japanese cooking I wish I had a little more time to prepare our dinner. I’ve came back exhausted and starved from work every evening because of the effects of the jetlag. Maybe also it’s the pressure of the approaching cooking contest… Yes, it’s tomorrow… I wonder if I will still be able to cook that quiche!!! So everything I have cooked this week was pure simplicity and it’s so simple I ask myself if that is actually cooking!!!!

Tofu and ginger, shishito, rice
Tofu and ginger, shishito, rice

Oh oh Waterloo ♫

Long time no update… Sorry for that, I’ve spent a few days in Chicago followed by almost two weeks in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada for work and friends. And it was really a good time. Starting with a sunny weather and friends willing to make us discover where they live, we were very very lucky. This Mennonites area is growing plenty of delicious vegetables and there are farmers market nearby where you can find loads of fruits like you never see in Japan: blueberries and strawberries by the kilo, peaches and apricots by the box… No wonder why our friends cook their own jams! It’s so cheap! And home made jam is so delicious!
Despite leaving in a hotel room for 2 weeks I manage to “cook” with just a knife and a spoon and eat fresh fruits and vegetables everyday. And finally cook when we spent the weekend north in French River in a lovely cottage of the Pine Cove, swimming, hiking and kayaking everyday for hours. Even with the limited ingredients we had it was so nice after so long to be in a kitchen and cook for everyone after a long outdoor day! In particular the kitchen of the cottage was super well furnished with high quality cooking ware so it was really enjoyable! Thanks A. for coming with me, thanks D. & C. for showing us around and spending so much time with us to make this Canadian experience really memorable and all the good work done too!
Now it’s time to go home! 

Summer?

The last days have been so chilly and rainy that it looks like the end of summer already, but not in Tokyo in Paris… And it calls for some nice warm dinner. I found some beautiful pieces of Spanish mackerel and I simply grilled them skin side without any additional and finished with 1min clean side for a golden touch. So simple and delicious. I served the fish with an edamame mashed potato. I boiled fresh edamame and one large potato. With a fork I mashed the potato adding a little of olive oil , add some peeled edamame in and stir before serving. Extra decoration with a few more edamame. Where is the summer? I want it back!

Simple Japanese one-plate

Well, Japanese is may be a little to much but at least it’s Japanese taste and local products! I don’t like fatty meat but I must say that pork belly is always perfect to flavor simple vegetables. It’s very easy to find thin slices of pork belly in Japan, they ressemble a lot bacon slices. They are perfect for cocotte cooking for the bottom layer. Once they are cooked and the fat has melted it is a perfect base for cooking vegetables. It goves an incredible taste. Most of the time I use it mainly as flavoring and don’t eat the meat myself (A. does) but when the fat has completely disappeared and the meat gets crunchy then I don’t mind eating it! I actually find it quite good!!! It’s nice also because it’s perfect any time with seasonal vegetables. This time I cooked capsicums and in the end of the cooking added green beans cut in 3cm bites and finally deglazed in soya sauce. Delicious with plain white rice!

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